Remember When the SEC Hated the Idea of an Ohio State-Michigan Rematch in the Title Game?

LSU will play Alabama for the BCS Championship on January 9th. That’s decided. The outcome of the SEC title game this weekend matters not. This upcoming weekend in college football is meaningless (only two games mattered last weekend.) Even with a loss – LSU is favored by 12 – the Tigers won’t fall far enough in the lame BCS standings to get leapfrogged by Oklahoma State.

Why is 1-loss Alabama playing LSU? Well, as Stewart Mandel points out, there’s clearly an SEC bias, and a bias against all the other conferences and their teams who have been blown out in title games in the last decade. (Note: I don’t have an issue with this bias. My issue is the entire system, which is broken. Last year in the NFL playoffs, the Patriots were 14-2 going in and everyone had them in the Super Bowl. Good thing there’s no BCS in the NFL.)

But let’s go back to 2006. Remember when Florida was worried Michigan and Ohio State were going to meet in a rematch for the title? Here’s what Urban Meyer said that day:

“We’re going to tell a group of young men who just went 12-1 with the most difficult schedule against six ranked opponents that they don’t have a chance to go play for a national championship?” Florida coach Urban Meyer asked incredulously. “I’m going to need help with that one.”

Here’s then-freshman receiver Percy Harvin:

“Michigan already had its chance. I think we deserve a chance.”

And the best quote came from Florida President Bernie Machen (who is a playoff guy):

“If they don’t vote for us after tonight, we need a new system,” Florida President Bernie Machen said after the game. “We should be packing our bags for Glendale.”

All the 1-loss teams eligible to play for the title – Stanford, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma State and Boise State, plus unbeaten Houston – should be parroting Florida’s 2006 responses. Alabama had their chance. I’d love to see Boise State, given a month to prepare, attack LSU’s defense. If Stanford got healthy in the next month, I’m curious how it would go at the best secondary in football. Ideally, of course, we’d see an 8 or 16-team playoff.